Let's Help More Than 100 Children with Cancer

Report (March, April and May of 2017)

During the months of March, April and May of 2017, Rugute provided charity of 3,800.00 Eur to the families who used this money to purchase necessary medical care and food supplies and to cover other costs that they could not have avoided due to their child’s disease (for example, travelling costs). The money also helped the families to improve the psychological well-being of the children. The Fund also supported families by providing them with medical care and food products for 2, 248.17 Eur.

In 2015, Fund initiated a continuing project Genetic Screening for More Targeted and More Effective Treatment of Every Little Patient. During this project, one of the most modern European laboratories carries out biomedical molecular tumor marker screening tests. These tests allow to detect the histology of tumor, to more accurately foresee the progress of the disease and the risk of relapse, to detect the sensitivity and resistance of the tumor cells and to choose an individual treatment method to every child. Fund has paid 23,709.95 Eur for genetic screening tests of 8 children.

The Fund helped to purchase specific medications that are needed by individual childhood cancer patients but are not State-covered or not supplied in Lithuania at all. In order to ensure that the proper treatment is administered to the little patients, the Fund bought:

•  medication Budenofalk, Ursofalk 250 mg (cost: 173.15 Eur);
•  medication Temozolomide 100 mg and 20 mg (22 items) (cost: 1,619.62 Eur).

For 8 years, Fund has continued to take care of emotional and psychological well-being of the little patients during treatment by supplying hospitals with long-term central venous catheters. These catheters ease the procedure of administering drugs to little children, allowing them to avoid pain. The total cost of the catheters and special needles for them, purchased by Fund during this particular 3 month time period, was 2,620.62 Eur.

The Fund also purchased the most commonly used mouthwash solutions AftaClear and Caphosol for 650.89 Eur. These solutions help the little patients to get over the most common side effect of chemotherapy – mouth ulcerations that are known to worsen both physical and psychological condition of the sick child. Thanks to these solutions, children are able to eat without suffering too much pain.

Fund purchased some supplies for the Children’s Oncohematology Center of Vilnius Children’s Hospital: 5 TV sets for 652.46 Eur (in order to help the little patients have a better time at the hospital ward) and 6 electric kettles for 256.47 Eur.

It is important that doctors and nurses have a possibility to improve their skills taking part in various international conferences and meetings. Therefore the Fund covered nurses’ travelling costs to Sweden, the Meeting of NOBOS Nurses Committee (305.59 Eur). Also, upon request of the physicians of the above-mentioned center, the Fund paid for translations of medical literature from English and Spanish into Lithuanian (866.36 Eur).

During the last 3 months, Rugute purchased some important supplies for Children’s Hematology Unit of Klaipeda Children’s Hospital, under their physicians’ request: a VS-900 monitor (1 item) and a multifunctional trolley Medicar M5 (1 item). Total cost of both items: 5,263.50 Eur.

In order for the sick children’s bodies and souls to get better, it is crucial to provide them with both active and passive recreation, new experiences, joyful adventures and new friends. Back in 2015, we received an invitation from Jurga and Fredrik Gotlund, who offered us to implement a project Rehabilitation and Recreation of Childhood Cancer Patients together, by bringing our children to Mallorca, Spain, for a week of vacation. On the 22-29^th of April, 2017, 6 children and their family members enjoyed warm Mediterranean seawater and impressive nature of Mallorca. The total cost of this trip, including airfare, insurance, catering and visiting places of interest, was 3, 644.90 Eur. Teenage patient Ignas tells us about his trip: Now that I am back home, I must say the Lithuanian sun cannot be compared to the Spanish sun, although it is the warmest time here in a couple of weeks... But it wasn’t the sunshine that impressed me the most. Before the trip, I couldn’t even imagine that our group would become a real team, ready to go anywhere, fast and with lost of enthusiasm... Just add jumping from the cliffs, cycling, mountain climbing, bathing in the sea and laughing together! This week in Mallorca was truly a memorable one. It felt so good...

For the past three months, Rugute was also covering the maintenance costs of Rugute’s Home, the rented premises (200 m²) with two bedrooms, a kitchen, two bathrooms and a cozy area for games, resting and meetings, and a small yard, not far from the Vilnius Children’s Hospital. It is the only facility in Lithuania that provides temporary accommodation to the young cancer patients and their family members, free of charge. Having found shelter in these premises, children with oncological diseases are able to have a break from their treatment and from being in the hospital. Rugute’s Home allows their family members to get a temporary accommodation while visiting children in the hospital. The total maintenance cost of Rugute's Home in March, April and May of 2017 was 4,359.83 Eur.

On the 13th of May, Fund Rugute and Nacionalinis kraujo centras invited everybody to the voluntary blood drive Share a Droplet that takes place in Rugute’s Home twice a year. It is a wonderful and positive blood donation campaign, where one can give some sincere attention to a sick human being and to save his/her life in an easy and rewarding way. This time, blood was collected from 17 donors.

Dear visitors and donors of GlobalGiving, you have been so kind to us. Thank you, most sincerely, for your contributions! We are proud and happy to be able to continue our work!

Links:

• http://www.rugute.lt/

Report (December 2016, January and February 2017)

During the months of December, January and February, Rugute provided monthly and non-recurring charity of 3,600.00 Eur to the families who used this money to purchase necessary medical care and food supplies and to cover other costs that they could not have avoided due to their child’s disease (for example, travelling costs). The money also helped the families to improve the psychological well-being of the children.

The Fund helped to purchase specific medications that are needed by individual childhood cancer patients but are not State-covered or not supplied in Lithuania at all. In order to ensure that the proper treatment is administered to the little patients, the Fund bought:

•  medication Avastin(cost: 6,541.56 Eur);
•  medication Temozolomide 100 mg and 20 mg (78 items) (cost: 3,372.94 Eur);
• medication Puri-Nethol 50 mg (3 items) (cost: 167.91 Eur).

Rugute bought a multifunctional printer / copying machine for the Children’s Oncohematology center of Vilnius Children’s Hospital, aiming to improve working environment for physicians and doctors. The printer / copying machine cost 1,394.72 Eur. The Fund also bought 10 new comforters and 5 duvet covers for the young patients (total cost: 523,75 Eur).

During the past three months, Fund Rugute purchased some important medical supplies for Children’s Hematology Unit of Klaipeda Children’s Hospital, under their request: a volume infusion pump, a stand for the pumps and some infusion systems. The pumps and infusion systems are used to administer medications, physiological fluids and glucose solutions intravenously. Children’s Hematology Unit of Klaipeda Children’s Hospital provides medical aid and treatment to those children with oncological diseases, who live in the Western part of Lithuania. Often, when the child comes home after an intense course of chemotherapy, it is necessary to administer infusions of liquids and / or medicine, or blood transfusions to that child, in order to keep him / her in a fair health condition. Thanks to the Children’s Hematology Unit, children and their parents do not have to go to Vilnius or Kaunas hospitals and endure a hard and lengthy trip. The financial value of the support provided to Klaipeda Children’s Hospital is 2,490.18 Eur.

For the past three months, Rugute was also covering the maintenance costs of Rugute’s Home, the only facility in Lithuania that provides temporary accommodation to the young cancer patients and their family members, free of charge. Having found shelter in these premises, children with oncological diseases are able to have a break from their treatment and from being in the hospital. Rugute’s Home allows their family members to get a temporary accommodation while visiting children in the hospital. The total maintenance cost of Rugute's Home in December, January and February was 4,700.64 Eur.

A few years ago our Fund contributed to the idea of Eugenijus  (father of a child with oncological disease) – to install aquariums at the Children’s Clinic of LSMU (Kaunas University Clinics). The hospital environment causes stress to children and depresses their parents who spent day after day looking after their sick children. It is proven that stress can make treatment less effective. On the other hand, pleasant atmosphere is especially important to children who spent long months being hospitalized. The aquariums are known to create a calming and stress-reducing atmosphere. We allocated 143.29 Eur to renew the aquariums (to purchase new fish).

On the 9th of December, 2016, five friends from Sweden arrived to Lithuania to continue on a beautiful Christmas tradition. They brought gifts to children with oncological diseases. Every time I come to Lithuania and meet those sweet children, I realize how lucky and fortunate I am. There are people arround us that have not been so lucky. I am happy to be able to provide at least a little happiness to them, - says Stefan Essperson, one of the beginners of this support campaign.

Dear Donors of GlobalGiving, thank you for your contributions and for staying in touch with our daily activities. It is so good to know that we are not alone in our fight with malignant childhood diseases. God bless you all!

Links:

• I hate hospital